Ottawa city worker uses defibrillator to save woman who collapsed

From: The Ottawa Citizen

A woman was saved Thursday by a quick-thinking city worker who saw her collapse outside the Centrepointe Theatre.

The worker was leaving the parking lot when the 64-year-old woman collapsed just after 4:30 p.m. The worker began CPR and called for a Public Access Defibrillator to be brought out of the building, paramedics said in a release. Other city workers helped apply the device, and administered one shock to the woman’s heart.

Paramedics arrived and gave the woman medication and inserted a breathing tube. Her heart was beating on its own before paramedics took her to the hospital, where she remains in critical condition.

Sixty-eight people have had their pulse revived by a bystander performing CPR and using an Automated External Defibrillator since the Ottawa Paramedic Service implemented their public access defibrillator program.

There are more than 800 Automated External Defibrillators around Ottawa.